Serious question, why do they even make those plug-in GFCI testers?

I had one of those three-light testers fail on me yesterday at a house in Waukesha. It was saying a circuit was wired wrong, so I spent like 45 minutes opening boxes and checking connections before I grabbed a multimeter. Turns out the tester itself was bad, not the wiring. Has anyone else had those things give you false readings or is it just me?

3 comments

3 Comments

parkera221mo ago

Damn, the tester itself was bad? That's messed up.

henrycooper1mo ago

I once spent an hour rewiring a lamp before realizing my tester was the one with the loose screw.

felixlee1mo ago

Yo I read somewhere that those cheap testers can actually get messed up by surges or even just being dropped too many times? Apparently the internal components are super basic and can fail without warning. I had one give me a false open ground reading last year and it drove me nuts until I checked with a meter too. Now I just use the plug tester as a quick sanity check and always confirm with a multimeter if something looks off. Sucks you wasted 45 mins though, that's brutal.